Bitch Media - Father's Dayhttp://bitchmagazine.org/taxonomy/term/3546/0
enThis Father's Day, More than 1 Million Fathers Are in Prison.http://bitchmagazine.org/post/this-fathers-day-more-than-1-million-fathers-are-in-prison
<p><img src="http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3812/9046065062_6c8ce6111d_o.png" alt="A father holding his son's hand" width="525" height="294" /></p>
<p>Many kids will spend this morning hanging out with their fathers. But 1 in 7 African American children will have a hard time seeing a parent today—they're in prison.</p>
<p>Father's Day is a particularly moving chance to reflect on the sheer number of Americans who are incarcerated, as well as the unfair racial and social dynamics that make prison a much more prevalent reality in certain communities.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Currently prevalence rates for incarceration in the United States are 1 in 134 adults in jail or prison. Among African American adults the number is nearly 1 in 20. Imprisoning this many adults has a ripple effect on all of society—mass incarceration has had a specifically phenomenal effect on children</p>
<p>Children whose parents are in jail or prison experience teasing or bullying in school and other social settings and tend to withdraw. Some studies have suggested that girls with an incarcerated household member have sex at younger ages, are less likely to use contraceptives, and are more likely to become pregnant before age 20. Parental incarceration has been correlated higher school drop-out rates, lower academic achievement, greater involvement with juvenile justice and ultimately more involvement with the criminal justice system as offenders themselves.&nbsp;<img style="float: right; margin: 5px;" src="http://www.nextnewdeal.net/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/content_images/children.png" alt="A chart showing the major increase in incarcerated parents" width="300" height="300" /></p>
<p>Racism within the justice system particularly hurts families of color. The reality is that African American men generally receives a longer sentences than white men and are held in facilities at great distance from home, making it very difficult or impossible for the children to visit.</p>
<p>The economically damaging aspect of incarceration on the fathers, particularly poor fathers, is that child support bills mount and they will leave prison with an average of $20,000 child support in arrears. According to the Federal Agency for Child Support Enforcement, 70 percent of all back child support is owed by men earning less than $10,000 a year. In addition, 29 percent of those fathers who are delinquent on their child support payments are institutionalized.&nbsp; Most of those who are institutionalized are actually in prison for failure to pay child support.&nbsp; The fathers, often unable to find a job to catch up on payments or just pay child support are subject to re-arrest and re-incarceration.&nbsp; They may be ineligible for a driver's license so that they can get to work, something very important in areas without comprehensive and networked transportation system. With recidivism always a threat, child support debt reportedly forces many ex-inmates into the underground economy where arrest again is likely.</p>
<p>We need to review and revise punitive policies that make it impossible for men to pay child support fees that mount inexorably while they are incarcerated. Another change that could ease some pain in families with incarcerated dads is to advocate for child visiting centers in men's prisons and state supported transportation so that the children will be able to visit on a regular basis, as a part of the court order.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<p>But, in the big picture, we need to begin to seriously recognize, as a society, that incarceration hurts children.</p>
<p>The collateral damage of incarceration on the returning parent is great: difficulty in finding employment, limited or no access to food stamps in some states, no access to funds to support higher education, and in some communities' lack of access to public housing as a result of a felony-related drug offense, which is all that they can afford if they manage to find a job. Irrationally, some public housing communities bar the return of the parent to the home even if the family wants them to come home and reinvigorate the family emotionally and financially. Daddy (or mommy) cannot visit a child in some public housing communities, a fact that further damages the formation of parental bonds and the self-esteem of parent and child.</p>
<p>On this Father's Day all Americans of every race, creed and color should take a minute to consider that children of incarcerated children should no longer be collateral damage in a criminal justice system that is disparately and insensitively applied. Each of us should wish for a Father's Day for all of the children who are separated from those they love and help them get together this year and every year in the future.</p>
<p><em>Dr. Henrie Treadwell is a research professor in the Department of Community Health and Preventive Medicine at Morehouse School of Medicine. She is the author of&nbsp;</em><a href="http://www.abc-clio.com/product.aspx?isbn=9781440803994" target="_blank">Beyond Stereotypes in Black and White: How Everyday Leaders Can Build Healthier Opportunities for African American Boys and Men</a>.</p>
<p><em>Graph by&nbsp;<a href="http://www.nextnewdeal.net/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/content_images/children.png" target="_blank">Becky Pettit.</a>&nbsp;Top photo is from a <a href="http://www.sesamestreet.org/parents/topicsandactivities/toolkits/incarceration#0" target="_blank">brand new toolkit Sesame Street released this week</a> for dealing with children of incarcerated parents.&nbsp;</em></p>
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http://bitchmagazine.org/post/this-fathers-day-more-than-1-million-fathers-are-in-prison#commentsFather's DayincarcerationParentingprisonSocial CommentarySun, 16 Jun 2013 14:39:19 +0000Dr. Henri Treadwell23064 at http://bitchmagazine.orgBelated Father's Day posthttp://bitchmagazine.org/post/belated-fathers-day-post
<p>Sunday I joked to my husband that it was Father's Day, <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/Responsible-Fatherhood/" rel="nofollow">"Time for your lecture from the President!"</a> But it's only a joke to us because my daughter's dad is in her life and that we have the "ideal" family going here. It's not a joke that far too many kids are living without their fathers. And I don't mean not living in the same home, but kids who can't remember the last time their dads came around to say hi. I have too many men and boys in my life who just don't know their dads. </p>
<p>The fact that the Father in Chief spends a lot of time talking about how important fatherhood is is amazing. He praises the strength of his mom and the grandparents who raised him, but you can tell that <a href="http://www.parade.com/export/sites/default/news/2009/06/barack-obama-we-need-fathers-to-step-up.html" rel="nofollow">he still has a hole where Dad would be:</a></p>
<blockquote><p><i><br />
In many ways, I came to understand the importance of fatherhood through its absence—both in my life and in the lives of others. I came to understand that the hole a man leaves when he abandons his responsibility to his children is one that no government can fill. We can do everything possible to provide good jobs and good schools and safe streets for our kids, but it will never be enough to fully make up the difference. </i></p>
<p>That is why we need fathers to step up, to realize that their job does not end at conception; that what makes you a man is not the ability to have a child but the courage to raise one.
</p></blockquote>
<p>But how do we go about promoting fatherhood? I have issue with the motives behind some of the fatherhood movement <a href="http://girlwpen.com/?p=1430" rel="nofollow">despite having awesome PSAs. </a></p>
<p>I just got <a href="http://www.jeremyadamsmith.com/_i_the_daddy_shift__i__62113.htm" rel="nofollow">"The Daddy Shift"</a> in the mail to review. I'm only through the introduction and I love it. Jeremy frames the book and the shift towards active and engaged fatherhood in feminist terms, not in the "we must reclaim our sons!" patriarchal bull shit we get in other places. I'm looking forward to the rest of the book and of course reporting back here!</p>
http://bitchmagazine.org/post/belated-fathers-day-post#commentsBarack ObamaFather's DaySocial CommentaryThu, 25 Jun 2009 04:40:24 +0000Veronica I. Arreola1804 at http://bitchmagazine.org